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Raymond Washington, a 15 year-old student at Fremont High School, began what would later become identified as the Crips in late 1969 or really early 1970. After a lot of the Black Panther power base was eliminated throughout the tumultuous 1960s, and as other social and political groups became ineffective agents for social change in Los Angeles, Washington, who was too young to participate in the Panther movement during the 1960s, but absorbed significantly of the rhetoric of community control of neighborhoods (Baker 1988, p. 28) fashioned his quasi-political organization after the Panthers militant style by sporting the popular black leather jackets of the time and adding the walking canes for style. Additionally to emulating the Panther appearance, Washington also admired an older gang that remained active throughout the 1960s known as the Avenues, led by Craig and Robert Munson. He decided to name his new organization the Baby Avenues (aka Avenue Cribs) to represent a new generation of youths.
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